Celebrated for its literate and loyal readership, Salut! Sunderland has been promised a review copy of Stokoe, Sunderland and 1973; The Greatest FA Cup Final Shock of all Time, which sounds more like a short chapter than a book title. Watch this space. But we know all about it already, not because we broke into the print works to snatch a copy but because our own Pete Sixsmith was interviewed for it . This, however, is more about the 2018 World Cup and the campaign to bring it to England – and Sunderland …

Last weekend the papers contained a breakdown of the possible venues for the 2018 World Cup Finals, should the FA manage to put a believable bid together.

At the moment, they seem to bear a remarkable resemblance to my Year 11 group – riven with infighting and squabbles. Mind you, I sometimes think that the Year 11s have more common sense those who run the National Game from their plush new offices at Wembley.

The Stadium of Light and the club’s bid came out it well, the city itself, not so good. The Stadium is, along with Wembley and no other ground in England, a proud recipient of the top FIFA Grade for stadiums. Better than Old Trafford, The Emirates and the hotchpotch up the road. .
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Many Salut! Sunderland readers have seen Pete Sixsmith’s warm tribute to Dave Lish, the SAFC fan who died suddenly on Nov 22.

Dave and Pete were chatting as usual at the Arsenal game the day before, when there was nothing to suggest Dave was other than in good shape and excellent spirits.

Following our obituary, a lot of other people have now added their own thoughts on Dave and these deserve to be repeated.

In particular, mention at Ready to Go of what Pete wrote has prompted a few more to offer sympathy and homage.
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